COVID-19: Imbalanced Immune Responses and Potential Immunotherapies

Abstract

The ongoing pandemic coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is rapidly spreading and has resulted in grievous morbidity and mortality worldwide. Despite the high infectiousness of SARS-CoV-2, the majority of infected individuals are asymptomatic or have mild symptoms and could eventually recover as a result of their balanced immune function. On the contrary, immuno-compromised patients are prone to progress into severe or critical types underpinned by the entanglement of an overexuberant proinflammatory response and injured immune function. Therefore, well-coordinated innate and adaptive immune systems are pivotal to viral eradication and tissue repair. An in-depth understanding of the immunological processes underlying COVID-19 could facilitate rapidly identifying and choosing optimal immunotherapy for patients with severe SARS-CoV-2 infection. In this review, based on current immunological evidence, we describe potential immune mechanisms and discuss promising immunotherapies for COVID-19, including IL-6R blockades, convalescent plasma, intravenous gamma globulin, thymosin alpha1, corticosteroids, and type-I interferon, and recent advances in the development of COVID-19 vaccines.